The History of Persecution, from the Patriarchal Age, to the Reign of George II

by Samuel Chandler

([J.])—Eusebius, one of the most learned men in his time, born in Palestine about the end of the reign of Gallienus. He was the intimate friend of Pamphilus the martyr, and after his death took his name. He was ordained bishop of Cesarea in 613. He had a considerable share in the contest relating to Arius, whose cause he and several other bishops defended, being persuaded that Arius had been unjustly persecuted by Alexander bishop of Alexandria. He assisted at the council of Nice in 325; when he made a speech to the Emperor Constantine on his coming to the council, and was placed next him on his right hand. He was present at the council of Antioch, in which Eustathius bishop of that city was deposed; but though he was chosen by the bishop and the people of Antioch to succeed him, he refused it.

In 335, he assisted in the council of Tyre held against Athanasius: and at the assembly of bishops at Jerusalem, at the dedication of the church there. By these bishops he was sent to the Emperor Constantine to defend what they had done against Athanasius; when he pronounced the panegyric on that Emperor, during the public rejoicings in the 30th year of his reign. Eusebius died in the year 338.

([K.]>)—Sabellius, who gave rise to the sect of the Sabellians. He was a native of Lybia, and a philosopher of Egypt. He taught that the word and the Holy Spirit are only virtues, emanations, or functions of the Deity; and maintained that he who is in heaven is the father of all things; that he descended into the virgin, became a child, and was born of her as a son: and that having accomplished the mystery of our salvation, he diffused himself on the Apostles in tongues of fire, and was then denominated the Holy Ghost. He lived and died in the third century.

([L.])—Arius, who lived in the fourth century, the head and founder of the Arians, a sect who denied the eternal divinity and substantiality of the word. At the council of Nice, in 325, the doctrines of Arius were condemned, and he was banished by the Emperor, all his books were ordered to be burnt, and capital punishment denounced against all who dared to keep them.—After five years banishment he was recalled to Constantinople, where he presented the Emperor with a confession of his faith, drawn up so artfully that it fully satisfied him. Notwithstanding this, Athanasius now bishop of Alexandria, refused to admit him and his followers to communion. This so enraged them, that, by their interest at court, they procured that prelate to be deposed and banished. But the church of Alexandria still refusing to admit Arius into their communion, the Emperor sent for him to Constantinople; where upon delivering in a fresh confession of his faith, in terms less offensive, the Emperor commanded Alexander the bishop of that church to receive him the next day into his communion, but that very evening Arius died. The manner of his death was rather extraordinary: as his friends were conducting him in triumph to the great church of Constantinople, Arius stepped aside and immediately expired; his bowels gushing out, owing, as was suspected, to poison.

([M.])—Constantine the great, the first Emperor of the Romans who embraced Christianity. Dr. Anderson in his Royal Genealogies, makes him not only a native of Britain, but the son of a British princess. It is certain that his father Constantius[Constantius] was at York, when, upon the abdication of Dioclesian, he shared the Roman empire with Galerius Maximus in 305, and that he died in York in 306, having first caused his son Constantine to be proclaimed Emperor by his army and by the Britons. Galerius at first refused to admit Constantine to his father’s share in the imperial dignity; but after having several battles, he consented in 308. Maxentius who succeeded Galerius, opposed him; but was defeated and drowned himself in the Tiber. The Senate then declared Constantine first Augustus, and Licinius his associate in the empire in 313. These Princes published an edict, in their joint names in favour of the Christians; but soon after Licinius, jealous of Constantine’s renown, conceived an implacable hatred against him, and renewed the persecutions against the Christians. This brought on a rupture between the Emperors; and a battle, in which Constantine was victorious. A short peace ensued; but Licinius having shamefully violated the treaty, the war was renewed; when Constantine totally defeating him, he fled to Nicomedia, where he was taken prisoner and strangled in 323. Constantine now become sole master of the whole empire, immediately formed the plan of establishing Christianity as the religion of the state; for which purpose, he convoked several ecclesiastical councils; but finding he was likely to meet with great opposition from the Pagan interest at Rome, he conceived the design of founding a new city, to be the capital of his Christian empire. He died in the year 337, in the 66th year of his age, and 31st of his reign.

([N.])—Socrates, an ecclesiastical historian, born at Constantinople, in the beginning of the reign of Theodosius; he professed the law, and pleaded at the bar; whence he obtained the name of Scholasticus. He wrote an ecclesiastical history from the year 309, where Eusebius ended, down to 440, and wrote with great exactness and judgment. An edition of Eusebius and Socrates, in Greek and Latin, with notes by Reading, was published in London, in 1720.

([O.])—Athanasius, a bishop of Alexandria, and the great opposer of the Arians, was born in Egypt. He followed Alexander in the council of Nice, in 325, where he disputed against Arius, and the following year was made bishop of Alexandria; but in 335 was deposed by the council of Tyre: and by the Emperor Constantine was banished to Treves. The Emperor, two years after, ordered him to be restored to his bishopric: but on his return to Alexandria, his enemies brought fresh accusations against him, and chose Gregory of Cappadocia to his see; which obliged Athanasius to go to Rome to reclaim it of Pope Julius. He was there declared innocent in a council held in 342, and in that of Sardica in 347, and two years after was restored to his see by order of the Emperor Constance; but after the death of that prince, he was again banished by Constantius, on which he retired into the desarts. The Arians then elected one George in his room; who being killed in a popular faction under Julian, in 360, Athanasius returned to Alexandria, but was banished under Julian, and restored to his see under Jovion. He was also banished by Valens in 367 and afterwards recalled. He ended this troublesome life on the 2d of May, 373.

([P.])—Theodoret, bishop of St. Cyricus, in Syria, in the fourth century, and one of the most learned fathers in the church. He was born A. D. 386, and was the disciple of Theodorus of Mopsuestes, and Chrysostom. Having received holy orders, he was with difficulty persuaded to accept of the bishopric of Cyricus, about A. D. 420. He displayed great frugality in the expences of his table, dress, and furniture, but spent considerable sums in improving and adorning the city of Cyricus. Yet his zeal was not confined to his own church: he went to preach at Antioch, and the neighbouring towns; where he became admired for his eloquence and learning, and had the happiness to convert multitudes of people. It is supposed he died about the year 457. There are still extant Theodoret’s excellent Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistles, and on several other books of the Holy Scriptures.

([Q.])—Gregory Nazianzen, from Nazianzum, a town of Cappadocia, of which his father was bishop. He was born in 324, at Azianzum, a village near it, and was one of the brightest ornaments of the Greek church, in the fourth century. He was made bishop of Constantinople, in 379, but finding his election contested by Timotheus, bishop of Alexandria, he voluntarily relinquished his dignity about 382, in the general council of Constantinople. His works are extant, in two volumes, printed at Paris in 1609. His style is said to be equal to that of the most celebrated orators of ancient Greece.

([R.])—Porphyrius, a famous platonic philosopher, born at Tyre in 233, in the reign of Alexander Severus. He was the disciple of Longinus, and became the ornament of his school at Athens; from whence he went to Rome, and attended Plotinus, with whom he lived six years. After Plotinus’ death he taught philosophy at Rome with great applause; and became well skilled in polite literature, geography, astronomy, and music. He lived till the end of the third century, and died in the reign of Dioclesian. He was an enemy to Christianity, and wrote a large treatise against it, which is lost. The Emperor Theodosius the Great caused it to be burnt.